3S-GTE History

3S-GTE Turbocharged Engine History

Toyota was winning Rallies with the 3S-GTE Turbocharged Engine while Subaru was still popping zits on its funny face and jerking off to the lingerie section of the Sears catalogue.

the 3S-GTE Engine was introduced in 1986 as Toyota's answer to a win at the Word Rally Championships. This high performance turbocharged engine was coupled with a transverse full time all wheel drive system that was revolutionary in design. It first entered the WRC during the Tour de Corse in 1988, with its first win under its belt in 1989.

The more rounded ST185 held the same power plant with a more modern and aerodynamic design. This model was Toyota's Breadwinner at the WRC, taking 30 trophies.

Toyota's ST205 Celica GTfour became Toyota's Official Rally Car in 1995. It cradled the Third Generation 3S-GTE Engine.

Ingeniuos Stupidity, at the Rally Catalunya in 1995, a Brilliantly engineered but illegal Turbo Restricter was deployed, likely by TTE (Toyota Team Europe) Engineers.

with Toyota having been Excluded from the WRC, and the dwindling market interest in two door sports cars, posed a problem for Toyota, they needed to find homes for thousands of 3S-GTE Engines, and transmissions, and make profit from the castings of this AWD System that up until this embarrassing scandal was making fans of the Celica happy at home with the All-Trac, and GT-four, but the demise the Celica on the Horizon, Toyota Introduces a fourth Generation 3S-GTE Engine out of what in my opinion is a board room decision to recover financially from market changes and any potential impacts to the Celica Brand from the rally cheating scandal.S

1997 Toyota Caldina GT-T with Aerial Moonroof Option

With an upgraded, and more reliable ignition system, a less expensive air to air intercooler, which complimented a more efficient, cooler and problem solving side feed intake manifold, Its integrated turbo/exhaust manifold model CT15b was fast spooling and cheap to produce. The ST215 Caldina GT-T the Gen4 3S-GTE Engine was exclusively built for, was originally an ugly, estate wagon, which was under powered but more or less reliable.

1994 Toyota Caldina

Fans of the Celica T205 and the WRC were becoming fathers and the ability to purchase an AWD Turbocharged Sport Wagon was the perfect trade in for an MR2 Turbo. Only available to the Japanese Market, the Caldina GT-T Came in both Automatic and Manual Versions, with the E150F AWD Manual Transmission being much more rare.

Toyota carried on using identical AWD Transmission housings as the Celica GT Four all the way from 1986 in the ST165 Celica GTfour until 2001 in the ST215 Caldina GT-T.

With varying model numbers featuring different gear ratios, the castings for the transmission housing for the E250F Rav4 AWD Gearbox being the same is how the 3S-GTE engine so easily swaps into a first generation Toyota Rav4.

the 3S-GTE engine, swapped into a 1994-2000 Rav4 has a lower overall weight after the swap, compared to the Celica and Caldina, due to a smaller chassis, simpler suspension design, and lighter driveline components such as subframes, and rear diff carriers, even the reduced length of exhaust accounts for some of the weight reduction.

To summarize, the Gen1 Rav4, is lighter than all models of the Toyota Celica, Caldina and MR2, and when is swapped to the 3S-GTE Engine, specifically the Gen4, the horsepower to weight ratio matches some of the fastest production cars on the market.